I have hunted a specific piece of ground for the past 7 years or so. It is a creek bottom that has timothy grass (which the deer have never touched) planted for horses and wooded ridges on the side. The sides are really good for deer. It is only a 20 acre parcel, but we get multiple deer at this location every year.

I recently read the article in D&DH regarding overhead food plots, and it really perked my interest. Placed a call today to http://www.wildlifegroup.com/ and ordered:

Pear PackageTubesFertilizerMoisture Mizer

Shipping ($25-$30) will be mid-March. I live in south-central Illinois, so I am hoping this will not be too much of a problem. The lady I talked to at The Wildlife Group was very helpful and informed making my job of being completely clueless about planting trees a little less daunting.

I hope to make it out Sunday (suppose to be close to 50 degrees this Sunday) and start clearing an area on top of a hill. Apparently fruit trees need lots of sunshine. I will take pictures of my progress to help in explaining what I am doing.

Supposedly, pears are a great tree to plant for deer. Fruit producing can occur quickly (5 years!) and with the different varieties fruit will drop from July to January. That would be nice. I figure in 10 years this will be a deer hotspot.

My goal is to plant trees every year to replace some junk trees and increase habitat potential. I wanted the deer Chestnut package but it was sold out. I also hope to get some sawtooth oaks to try out on the hills and nutall oaks in the bottoms.

I sure have learned a lot about trees and mast in the last month or so! Thanks D&DH for printing that article!

The woods are mainly oak/hickory, but it was logged a number of years ago so some less desirable species are taking hold. There are a couple of monster oaks (I believe they are white) on the property already, but I noticed that acorn production varies greatly from year to year. See if I can get a picture or 2 of those monsters.

sohntr wrote:The woods are mainly oak/hickory, but it was logged a number of years ago so some less desirable species are taking hold. There are a couple of monster oaks (I believe they are white) on the property already, but I noticed that acorn production varies greatly from year to year. See if I can get a picture or 2 of those monsters.

That is your big draw. add other things, but that is your center piece. I have heard it said "A deer will walk 7 miles for accorns from a white oak". I am planting some red oaks this spring (they are in pots now) and will follow up with white oaks when I find a good source. This is a long term project though, it takes about 20 years for maturity in oak trees. And you are right, mast crops vary from year to year. Apple trees are good too! Swamplife swears they love oranges! Huneysuckle, clover, corn, grapes, persimons are all good draws as well. Good luck! And good hunting.

The only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker is observation. All the same data is present for both. The rest is understanding what you are seeing.

Remember that horses love pears too. I hunt a couple of different horse farms and mainly use mast crops to hunt near. I also use the woods between field edges and pasture fences as funnels to hunt near. Terrain is tricky in a couple of spots because of the prevailing winter winds blowing my scent the direction the deer sometimes come from, but I found that I I got really high in a tree it wasn't as much of an issue.